Dallas
– New Orleans Pelicans coach Monty
Williams wanted to give swingman Tyreke Evans the opportunity to warm up in
pregame before making a decision on Evans' availability for Saturday's game
against Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center.

Apparently Williams, Evans and the Pelicans'
medical team didn't like what they saw.

Evans sat out the game after re-aggravating his
sprained left ankle in Friday night's 107-90 loss to the Mavericks. It's the
fourth time this season Evans has hurt the ankle.

He re-injured himself in the first half on
Friday and wasn't able to play in the second half. He was held scoreless in
nine minutes.

SMITH STARTS: Pelicans forward/center Jason
Smith, who started the first 24 games of the season at center before being
sidelined with a shoulder injury, was back with the starters on Saturday.

Smith spent the past four games coming off
the bench, but Williams decided to reinsert Smith into the lineup ahead of
Alexis Ajinca.

THREE-POINT WOES: During the six games
leading up to Saturday night's contest against the Mavericks, the Pelicans
hadn't been shooting or making 3-pointers at a high rate.

With their top shooter Ryan Anderson playing
in only two of the previous six games because of his injury, the Pelicans have
made 25 of their last 77 3-point attempts (32.4 percent).

But Williams said the lack of Pelicans
outside shooting can be attributed to more than absence of Anderson.

"A lot of it is Ryan. The other side of
it is when you don't get stops. A lot of threes come in transition, so when you
don't get stops you're not running as much. Then you've just got to make them.
Not having Ryan on the floor certainly hurts that.

"Eric usually gets a number of threes;
he hasn't had a lot lately. B-Rob can knock down threes. A-Mo is the guy who
hasn't been able to get off threes because teams are running him off the line
or putting quicker guys on him. I'm more concerned with the stops than I am
with the threes because I think the stops can take care of all that."

SAME FOE, DIFFERENT VENUE: Count Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle in the
group who doesn't mind playing the same team on back to back nights like his
Mavericks did when they hosted the Pelicans one night after playing them in New
Orleans.

"You run into this two or three times a
year," Carlisle said. This is already the second time for us. It's good because
the first game is a prep for the second game, so it's kind of like a playoff
game. If we ever have a situation where we play the same team three times in a
row, maybe that will be a story. But I don't see that coming soon."